Experience Nutrition

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A New View of Healthy Eating: Daily Healthy Recipes by Melanie Albert: Roasted Carrot Soup
by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
I love beautiful food, simple plant-based cooking, and continually learning plant-based culinary. Since my birthday in November 2017, I’ve been enrolled in the Plantlab Culinary Cooking Fundamentals Course. Although I’ve been teaching Whole Foods Cooking at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts since March 2015, have led hundreds of cooking workshops and classes, and completed the Rouxbe Professional Plant-based Course in January 2015, I always love to learn more culinary.

For the Final Project in the Plantlab Culinary Course, my First course is Roasted Carrot Soup. Orange Braised Leeks. This course was inspired by local Arizona farmers’ carrots and our Winter Arizona citrus season. Today, I’m happy to share with you the recipe some photos of the Roasted Carrot Soup.

Roasted Carrot Soup. Orange Braised Leeks.

A light, fresh soup showcasing local Arizona farmers’ carrots and leeks. Thanks so much to Steadfast Farm for the beautiful carrots. Love their delicate beauty and how their flavor tastes like the real carrots I enjoyed as a kid. And, thanks to McClendon Select for the leeks. In the past I would order a dish with leeks at restaurants, now I’m enjoying braised leeks with carrot soup and roasted leeks on flatbread.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds local Arizona farmers yellow and orange carrots
- 2-3 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
- Dash sea salt
- 1 shallot, sliced
- 1 tsp organic extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- ¼ tsp sumac (love this lemon flavor)
- 2 quarts veggie stock
- ½ tbsp sea salt
- 1 Bouquet
  - 2 bay leaves
  - 1 bunch lemon verbena
  - ¼ bunch parsley
  - ½ Arizona navel orange, sliced
- 2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 orange, zested
SIMPLE STEPS
- Roast carrots (blend) and leeks (keep chunky)
  - Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  - Peel and cut carrots into 2” pieces.
  - Toss carrots in organic extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.
  - Place carrots on parchment-lined sheet plan
  - Roast for 15 minutes.
  - Flip carrots
  - Roast another 12-15 minutes
- Cook Soup
  - Peel and slice shallot.
  - In large soup pot, sweat shallot with olive oil, coriander and caraway seeds for 5 minutes.
  - Add stock, salt, and carrots to the pot.
  - Bring to a boil.
  - Add the bouquet and lower to simmer.
  - Simmer for 30 minutes.
  - Season with orange juice and zest.
  - Blend until smooth.
The beautiful, sweet roasted carrot soup. I’ll also blog the Braised Leeks recipe.

If you enjoy Melanie Albert’s recipes and perspectives, purchase her book, “A New View of Healthy Eating“

Please share your veggie soup creations with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating
January 25, 2018
A New View of Healthy Eating: Daily Healthy Recipes by Melanie Albert: Arizona Farmers’ Market Avocado Salad with Mindful Plating

by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
On our chilly Arizona winter morning —imagine 60 degrees, grey skies, and a little drizzle — I shopped at the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers’ Market. The difference between our grey day and the vibrancy of our local Arizona winter produce inspired today’s Avocado Salad. Thanks Alexa for asking me to blog about this fresh salad.

Arizona Winter Morning at the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers Market

The Contrast: Vibrant Produce at the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers’ Market

Avocado Farmers’ Market Salad Recipe and Plating Presentation

The Avocado Farmers’ Market Salad was created very intuitively and inspired by a few of my favorites. The first inspiration was golden and chioggia beets harvested early yesterday morning at The Farm at South Mountain for our Visit Phoenix Team Building Cooking Challenge Event. Craving tomatoes today, so I purchased a few beautiful yellow and red from Abby Lee Farms, about 4 miles from my home. I’m loving microgreens this season; this salad features a beautiful Wellness Mix from Arizona Microgreens. I also intuitively reached for the Hatun Basil Olive Oil from my friend, Onur Mendeli. Finally, I added a few capers to add to the beauty of the dish.

Mise en Place: Get your ingredients all set for plating.

A glance at the plating process. When we plate, we mindful place our food onto the plate one-by-one and very mindful. It’s a lovely meditative process to create food art.

Arizona Avocado Farmers’ Market Salad: Beautiful, healthy, and delicious!!!

Action: Have fun intuitively choosing a few beautiful veggies, micro-greens, and olive and mindfully plate your own avocado salad. Post your beautiful creations on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

Melanie’s book, “A New View of Healthy Eating” features 54 simple plant-based, whole foods recipes and 84 simple culinary techniques.

Another look at the Arizona Avocado Farmers’ Market Salad

January 20, 2018
A New View of Healthy Eating: Daily Healthy Recipes by Melanie Albert: Quick and Easy Tomato Gazpacho
by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Today I had the opportunity to share how to make a really simple tomato gazpacho to a group with Gregory’s Fresh Market. Tomato gazpacho is one of the simple staples in my cooking classes, as it is so simple for everyone to make – from kids, to adults, to former NFL players and their families, to seniors. This cold soup is also so refreshing and very versatile. Plus, it’s great for hydration.

This soup is so quick to prepare. In fact, today, I chopped for 30 minutes and then prepared two big batches in 30 minutes for the 56 people attending the cooking class. During the classes, rather than blending the veggies, I actually massage the tomatoes to bring out the tomato juice and flavor. Today, we intuitively made one batch with lots of garlic and cilantro, and the other with a little more lemon and green onions.

The recipe in my book, “A New View of Healthy Eating” can be used as a basic guide to prepare the soup, then you can experiment with different flavors. Such as lime, dill, lots of colorful heirloom tomatoes, various peppers.

Excerpt from “A New View of Healthy Eating”

Summertime Tomato Gazpacho Cold Soup

A fresh, cold tomato gazpacho is refreshing, especially on warm days. Make this quick cold tomato soup with red, orange, and yellow tomatoes and red, orange, yellow, and green bell peppers for a bright summer side dish. Be sure to try the beautiful (some may think ugly) heirloom tomatoes. If you are fortunate enough to purchase a whole flat of really ripe organic tomatoes, make a big batch of tomato gazpacho for a summertime picnic.

Simple Ingredients: Soup
- 10 medium tomatoes, cut into eighths
- 4 red, orange, yellow, and/or green bell peppers, seeded and rough chopped
- 3 cucumbers, rough chopped
- 2 jalapeno or Anaheim peppers, seeded and rough chopped
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup fresh lime juice
- 6-8 garlic cloves, minced
- Up to 2 cups water, if needed
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Simple Ingredients: Topping
- 4 tbsp cucumber, small diced
- 4 tbsp tomato, small diced
- 4 tsp cilantro leaves
Simple Steps
- Place all soup ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix well.
- Puree half of the ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.
- Combine pureed soup with chopped veggies.
- Taste and season with sea salt and/or pepper.
- Top with diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and cilantro.
- Enjoy!
- Refrigerate leftover gazpacho soup and enjoy the next day for an even more flavorful soup.
ACTION: Make your own tomato gazpacho, experimenting with fresh herbs, peppers, and colorful tomatoes. Share your cold soup with us on Facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating
January 18, 2018
A New View of Healthy Eating: Intuitive Cooking with Winter Arizona Farmers’ Market Goodies: Part 2 Roasted Veggies
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Part 2 of Intuitive Cooking with Winter Arizona Farmers’ Market Goodies is one of my favorite very quick ways to prepare veggies, a simple roasted method.

The quick roasted veggie dish was inspired by our Arizona farmers’ Brussel sprouts, yellow tomatoes, and peppers, along with dried basil, marjoram, and cilantro seeds.

The simple steps:
- Choose a few veggies.
- Rough chop the veggies.
Mortar and pestle a few dried herbs.

Place veggies in oven pan.
- Toss veggies with olive oil, dried herbs, and sea salt.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes at 325 degrees, gently tossing after 20 minutes.
Enjoyed the veggies picnic-style in a Salmon Taco. Thanks to my brother Jack for catching and cooking the wild Canadian salmon, and creating the fresh veggie salmon taco. WOW! So many layers of flavors.

Perfect Left-over Veggies & Salmon. Enjoyed the roasted veggies as quick lunch with Canadian salmon with two of my favorites: goat cheese and cilantro micro-greens.

Have fun shopping at your local farmers’ markets and intuitive create a few dishes! Share your culinary creations with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

My book, “A New View of Healthy Eating” is a great resource to learn simple culinary skills and cooking intuitively. Purchase here and I’ll gift wrap and mail it to you.
November 21, 2017
A New View of Healthy Eating: Intuitive Cooking with Winter Arizona Farmers’ Market Goodies. Part 1: Organic Arugula

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
I love our Winter Farmers season out here in Arizona. Yes, it’s November and I’m so excited about the incredible, beautiful food our local Arizona farmers are growing. Also, as many of you are aware I embrace the concept of intuitive cooking.

This week I’m sharing with you the intuitive dishes I create this week inspired by my farmers’ market goodies.

On Saturday I shopped at the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers’ Market. First, I walk the market and notice what the different farmers are growing locally and in our season. Then, I love to notice what I get excited about and start shopping. Since I teach so many cooking classes and since we have so many incredible farmers in the Phoenix area, I purchase a few different veggies and fruit from different farmers.

Take a look at all the goodies from the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers’ Market.

Dish 1: Mediterranean Arugula Salad. Dolmas. Garlic Hummus.

I love the spiciness of arugula and was craving dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), so when I arrived home from the market, I prepared a very quick salad. Salad highlight: Saltiness of dolmas, olives, and capers combined with freshness of cilantro micro-greens (new favorite micro-green).

Dish 2: Arugula Salad Number 2

This salad was created while watching the Arizona Cardinals football game, so it needed to be a quick process. Quick gentle toss of the spicy arugula with Meyer lemon, olive oil and sea salt. Salad highlight: Contrast of the garlicy green onion with spicy arugula.

“Intuitive shopping is fun. Listen to your cravings and shop with all your senses.” Melanie Albert

Have fun shopping and intuitively creating your own dishes. Share your creations with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

November 19, 2017
A New View of Healthy Eating: Add Intuitive Cooking to your Life

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
For the last several years I‘ve had the honor to lead cooking classes with intuitive cooking with many different venues and organizations, including The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, Gregory’s Fresh Market, and private cooking classes and events.

In light of my passion about food and intuitive cooking, I am thrilled to be featured in the Fall 2017 issue of Edible Phoenix, in the fun article by Sharon Salomon “Try Your Hand at Intuitive Cooking: Step Away from the Recipe!”

Sharon and I are in-sync with our cooking styles. I especially enjoy her thoughts on looking into the refrigerator:

“When it comes time to prepare dinner, I open the fridge, stand in front of it (yes, with the door open) thinking. Then I start taking out this and that. I’ve been doing this long enough that I know what goes together…” Sharon Salomon

My take on intuitive cooking from “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”

Cook with Intuition. With intuitive cooking, we use recipes as guides. We first learn simple, basic culinary methods and techniques (such as raw, steaming, or roasting) to prepare real whole foods with recipes as our guide. Naturally, over time, we learn to trust our own intuition to cook foods we desire using cooking techniques we’ve learned. Over time, you will not need to rely on recipes; you’ll trust yourself and your culinary skills to create your own healthy dishes with local, seasonal food.

For instance, we learn the culinary technique to steam carrots in a bamboo steamer and use our recipe to finish the carrots with walnut oil, toasted cumin seeds, fresh lemon juice, parsley, and a pinch of sea salt. After learning the bamboo steamer technique to quickly steam veggies, we cook other steamed vegetables (such as asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, and peapods) and finish them with different oils, spices, and fresh herbs.

“With intuitive cooking we also naturally cook more mindfully, meditatively enjoying the rhythm of chopping veggies or the mindfulness of massaging kale or grating fresh spices.”

Hope you can join our community at the next intuitive Cooking Class, Winter Harvest Farm-to-Table, at The Farm at South Mountain on December 3, 2017, 11am-1:30pm. We’ll tour the beautiful Garden at The Farm and intuitively prepare Winter Veggie Stir-fry, Bamboo Steamer Carrots, and Winter Root Soup. It will be a fun class to attend with a group of friends! Also, one lucky participate will receive a copy of my book, “A New View of Healthy Eating.”

Click here to register for the class.

November 16, 2017
A New View of Healthy Eating: Reader’s Digest: How to Get Started on a Raw Diet this Summer

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
A few months ago, The Farm at South Mountain and I had the honor to host a fun hands-on Intuitive Cooking Class for Visit Phoenix, Visit Mesa, travel and food bloggers, and the media.

As a result of this memorable cooking class, blogger and writer, Fiona Tapp featured our class and my thoughts on Raw Food in the Reader’s Digest article: 9 Things to Know If You’re Thinking About Starting a Raw Food Diet This Summer.

Get tips to Go Raw this Summer in the article.

Reader’s Digest: Raw Food this Summer

Enjoy a few photos from our fun cooking class at The Farm.

Purchase Today! “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods.”

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If your organization is interested in a cooking workshop, event, or retreat, please let us know your interests. Thanks!

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July 6, 2017
A New View of Healthy Eating: Matthew Kenney Fundamentals of Raw Cuisine Level 1 Final Project: Arizona Summer Raw Cuisine

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
As many of you are aware, I’ve spent the last few months learning more about Raw Food with the Matthew Kenney Culinary Fundamentals of Raw Cuisine Level 1 and am so glad I did.

Today, I’m excited to share a video of my Final Project for the course. During this project, we were required to create a menu, which included our learning from the course, along with our philosophies around the menu, and to prepare 2 of the 3 courses in the menu. Of course, I had fun preparing all three.

MENU: Arizona Summer Raw Cuisine

FIRST

Arizona Summer Flatbread

Basil Marjoram Hummus. Local Flowers and Microgreens.

SECOND

Deconstructed Arizona Lasagna

Local Heirloom Tomatoes. Marjoram Pesto. Parsley Cashew Cheese.

THIRD

Raw Matcha Pistachio Ice Cream

Ginger Pistachio Cookies. Arizona Local Peaches. Goji Berries.

I would like to thank all our local Arizona farmer friends, Maya Dailey of Maya’s Farm, Abby Lee Farms, Golo Organic Family Farms, The Community Exchange, and the Downtown Phoenix Public Market where I shopped a lot for this course. Honestly, your food really brought my creations to life!

I will be sharing learning from the Matthew Kenney Fundamentals of Raw Cuisine with you on my Blog, Facebook and Instagram posts, a book (of course!) and am in process of creating Raw Culinary Experience classes and retreats!

“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods” by Melanie A. Albert is available. Please let me know if you’d like your book gift wrapped or if you are interested in the book and cooking events for your business or organization.

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July 5, 2017
A New View of Healthy Eating: Matthew Kenney Culinary Journey: My First Raw Heirloom Tomato Lasagna!

By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Taking a moment to reflect on the beginnings of my Raw Culinary Journey with Matthew Kenney Culinary.

A few weeks ago, I was so excited to prepare Matthew Kenney’s classic Raw Heirloom Tomato Lasagna, given that I ate it many times 10 years ago when I was in school for weekends with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York at Pure Food & Wine. I actually ordered that amazing raw lasagna every time I ate there, so when I saw that we had the opportunity to learn how to prepare this dish, I was more than excited! I was also excited that I was able to use local Arizona tomatoes and zucchini in the dish.

Mindfulness in the Kitchen. I loved the mindful, careful, beautiful, meditative process of preparing each component of the dish – pesto, red sauce, raw ricotta, and basil oil. It really was a quiet, meditative process for me. I was in the present moment with the food, aroma, texture, and colors. I enjoyed seeing how the different textures and colors were coming together, and could hardly wait to taste it.

Art of Plating. I really begin to appreciate the art of plating and the art of food more deeply when I began to plate the dish. I could see the beauty of each element of the dish coming together into a (hopefully) beautiful dish.

Many aspects of making this dish were new to me, including the plating style and it was the first time I ever sauced a plate! And, it was the first time using my new “high-quality” mandolin.

More to Share. I’m looking forward to sharing more about my raw culinary experience with you, in practicing plating, and enjoying the beautiful mindful process of raw culinary.

If you are interested in purchasing my latest book, “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods,” I’m happy to gift-wrap a copy for you.

First & Last Name

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What is your top nutrition or cooking issue?
Thanks!

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May 31, 2017
A New View of Healthy Eating: Kids Cooking at The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix

By Melanie Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

This season we have been holding amazing, fun cooking classes, just for kids at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, just a mile from my home. I’m sharing this blog because I’m in awe and so inspired by the kids cooking and wanted to share some inspiring photos by Nath Rocha.

The intention of the fun, hands-on cooking classes are for the kids to have fun with food, and we prepare the same food that adults prepare, with a kids twist. Plus, my 11-year old niece, Meredith and her friend, Kaitlyn assisted, for their first time, in teaching the class. Kids teaching kids!

The morning of the class, I shopped at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market for the goodies for the class including just harvested dinosaur kale, rainbow carrots, bell peppers, lemons, and edible flowers.

The beautiful, outdoor farm “cooking classroom”.

Getting set for class, with gloves and beautiful food.

In our Spring Kids Cooking Class at The Farm, the kids made their own salad dressing with fresh, local Arizona lemons, and herbs including dill, cilantro, and parsley. Squeeze lemon, add olive oil, taste, shake, a little salt, shake, taste.

Meredith showed the kids how to easily take the stem off the kale. Fun! And, the kids took turns massaging their kale for about 7 minutes.

The kids spiralized colorful zucchini, sweet potatoes, and apples for their salads.

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And, look at the amazing salads created by the kids!

For more Kids Cooking Classes at The Farm at South Mountain, visit www.TheFarmatSouthMountain.com or www.EXPNutrition.com

Our final classes for the 2017 season are Sunday, April 9, 11:30-12:30 and May 6, 2017, 11:30-12:30 pm.

Hope to see you!

Have fun cooking with your kids!

April 6, 2017